Week Three - Observation 2

I'm enjoying this morning writing time better than in the evening.  It gets me going in the right direction early on and I don't run into the conflicts I was in the evenings.  Hope it's working out better for you as well!

It's been such a joy for me to have my son, Robert Poling, here for the last couple of days.  He's a grown-up man (42), but he's always my little boy in my heart.  He's a great son, husband, father and brother.  I couldn't be prouder of him.   But the thing I'm proudest of him for is the fact that strives to be a faithful Christian and that he leads his family to follow Christ.  It's so good to see the legacy of faith continue to future generations.  I know that my grandparents were all faithful believers and I cannot help but think that their prayers for their children and grandchildren have affected me and my walk of faith.  Likewise, I pray for my children and grandchildren to stay faithful and true to God's Word, no matter what the future brings.  

Today we're going to look at Christ's example of suffering and how we should emulate Him.  That's a tough assignment, knowing that Jesus was perfect.  But that is our goal - to become Christ-like.  So we need to always look to see how Jesus responded to things in order to know how we, put in similar circumstances, should also respond.  The old "WWJD" acronym comes to mind - when faced with difficult circumstances and trying to determine our course of action under pressure, "what would Jesus do?" is a very good first consideration.  And to answer that question, we have to know our Jesus, we have to study the Word and understand who He really was and how He really lived.

Remember the question we're posing this week?  Why does God allow people, especially believers in Him, to suffer and why does He permit pain in our lives?

And our verse to memorize:  

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us."  Romans 8:18

OBSERVATION:  

1 Peter 2:21-24  "For you were called to this, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in His steps.  He did not commit sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth; when reviled, He did not revile in return; when suffering, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to the One who judges justly.  He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness; by His wounding you have been healed."

Hebrews 5:8  "Though a Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered."

Ok, jumping into these passages and seeing what we need to see.  And the very first thing I see is that we are called to something, and that something is in the immediately preceding verse of 1 Peter, "But when you do good and suffer...".  That's our calling as Christians - to continue to do good in the face of suffering.  That's a great marketing tool for Christianity, isn't it?  "Come join us, do good things for others, and suffer."  But what did we talk about yesterday?  When you truly align yourself with Christ, you become an enemy to this world, now ruled by satan (I never give him the honor of capitalizing his name).  With that alignment, we open ourselves up to a myriad of possibilities of  suffering.  But we are not given license to suffer with responses to our suffering that lower ourselves to the level of those who oppose us.  

We've been given the perfect example of someone who suffered strong (as Connie put it yesterday).  Our Jesus Christ.  He is our example - we should follow in His steps.  When Jesus was taken before the authorities (both Jewish and Roman), He never let the enemy take anything away from His perfection.  He never broke, never spoke words that could be counted as sinful or deceitful.  How satan would have loved for Jesus to, at that very moment in the course of God's redemptive plan, forfeited His perfection and destroyed His ability to redeem mankind.  But our Jesus stood strong and did not sin.

Scripture above says that when Jesus was reviled, He did not revile in return.  Revile, as used here, means to verbally abuse.  When the Roman soldiers mocked Jesus, He did not respond in a like manner at all. Luke 22:63-65 says, "The men who were holding Jesus started mocking and beating Him.  After blindfolding Him, they kept asking, 'Prophesy!  Who hit you?' And they were saying many other blasphemous things against Him."  Jesus could have come back and returned their mocking - He could have thrown out statements that revealed to them their weak mortal status in comparison to His all-powerful heavenly status as God's one and only Son.  But even though He could have, He did not.  He did not engage in a battle of taunts and one-uppance.  He could have threatened them with His supernatural ability to kill them on the spot.  But He did not.  He did not have to.  

For Peter tells us the most important thing that Jesus did while suffering - He committed Himself to the One who judges justly.  Jesus put Himself in God's hands and let God direct the scene in which He was now involved.  Jesus knew that God's purposes were greater than His personal pain.  He knew the plan, and He was obedient.

That is where Jesus has an advantage over us - He did know exactly what He was supposed to do, and He followed God's directive.  We do not always have that clear picture.  But, as Peter says, we do have an example of how we should respond to suffering - and that is trusting our God and His purposes and not overriding them with what would be better for us in the moment.  Because Jesus suffered strong and obeyed His Father, we received the redemption only He could bring to us.  He obeyed, and He took all of our sins, ALL of EVERYONE's sins, to the cross and through His death, all of our spiritual disease, rot and decay were healed forever.

We have a perfect example of suffering in Jesus, but we also have examples through all the apostles' lives.  And throughout Christian history, we continue to have examples over and over of those who have suffered strong, even to death.  In more modern history, we have examples such as Richard Wurmbrand, the founder of Voice of the Martyrs. If you have never seen the movie of his life, "Tortured for Christ", I strongly recommend watching.  He and his wife suffered for the Gospel in such truly Christ-like ways.  It is humbling to watch.  We need to look and study these examples of suffering and commit to following in their steps, and pray for the Holy Spirit to empower us in the same way He did for these faithful followers.

             

The writer of Hebrews relays to us what all of them learned through suffering:  obedience.  Even Jesus, in his humanity, "learned" obedience.  In his humanity, Jesus could have walked away.  The Apostles could have abandoned the cause.  Richard Wurmbrand could have said it wasn't worth it.  But they all were called, and they all obeyed.  Whatever God calls you to, do what He is asking of you.  Big or small.  Painful or not.  Obedience is paramount.  It is what keeps us in the will of God and involved in His purposes...purposes that are so much bigger than we can imagine.  Let's not miss what He may be asking us to do for His Kingdom.  We may suffer, but our suffering will only make the ultimate victory that much sweeter to us.  Obedience - in all things.

In His Amazing Love,

Janice

Week Three - Observation 1

Starting our third week of studying the material in "Living Victoriously in Difficult Times" by Kay Arthur and Bob & Diane Vereen.  I hope you're finding this study applicable to the difficult times we're going through and also for preparing our lives to endure even more difficult times, should they come.  Trusting all our days to our heavenly Father - He alone knows what our futures bring.

This week is going to pose a question that has been asked by people for countless years:  Why does God allow people, especially believers in Him, to suffer and why does He permit pain in our lives?

Have you ever wondered that?  Why do such good people go through such hard times and why are people around the world being slaughtered because they believe in Him?  Where is God and why does He allow this to happen?  The problem of ongoing suffering and pain in the world is one of the main arguments that atheists will throw at you - "why does your God allow all of this?"  That's what we're going to try to answer this week.

The verse we're going to memorize this week is:  

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us."  Romans 8:18

OBSERVATION:

John 15:18-21  "If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me before it hated you.  If you were of the world the world would love you as its own.  However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you.  Remember the word I spoke to you, 'A slave is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will also keep yours.  But they will do all these things to you on account of My name, because they don't know the One who sent Me."

1 Peter 2:18-21  "Household slaves, submit your selves to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the cruel.  For it brings favor if, because of conscience toward God, someone endures grief from suffering unjustly.  For what credit is there if you endure when you sin and are beaten?  But when you do good and suffer, if you endure, it brings favor with God.  For you were called to this, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in His steps.

Just by reading through these passages of Scripture, can you tell this is going to be a hard lesson  These words are so counter-culture, especially right now in our current class divisions and racial strife.  Some of the ideas presented really go against us --- what do we do with that when we feel differently than what the Bible says?  We dig.  We look at it again and see true meanings and we do our very best to not change that true meaning to fit what we want Scripture to say to us.

First Jesus tells us that it is going to be quite natural for Christians to be hated and to be persecuted.  Why?  Because we should be opposed to the natural world, just as Jesus was.  The world has a different agenda than we should have as Christians, and people of the world are going to fight against us because of that.  If Jesus, our Master and the One completely perfect man who ever lived, was hated and reviled because of His nature, and if we are supposed to be conforming to His nature, how is the world going to react to us?  Why should opposers of Christ treat us any better than they treated Him.  If we have truly established Christ as the Master of our lives, than we can expect nothing good from the people of the world who crucified Him.  They have never known our Father God, and they do not know His Son.  We do - and they don't like what we have to say or how we choose to live.

Peter admonishes slaves, or sometimes translated servants.  And this is the passage that is hardest for us to understand and apply.  It really seems as if Peter is saying that God will give favor to those who are treated cruelly by their masters without striking back or being upset about it.  Look at the caveat in this passage though, "if, because of conscience toward God."  Just being meek and taking a beating  (particularly one that may be well deserved for misbehavior) doesn't bring God's favor, but "if, because of conscience toward God" a servant has behaved in a manner that is in line with his Christian beliefs and his obligation to Jesus, and that behavior is met with cruel treatment from the master, than that suffering brings the servant into God's favor and the support of the Holy Spirit in the suffering.  That's the way I am reading through this passage - I am very interested in what your thoughts are!

If we are doing good, if we are living Christ-honoring lives, being a light in this dark world, and we endure through it, God takes note.  Don't ever think He doesn't.  

In all things, Christ is our example.  He is our example in suffering as well.  Don't ever think that we are guaranteed an earthly life without suffering.  Christ suffered for us - we may well suffer for His name.  And should it be so, we are honored to do so.  Quite different from religions who promise eternal reward for acts of violence, murder and hatred - we Christians are asked to suffer for our Master by following Him in suffering, and some, even through martyrdom.  

These are hard truths to accept - that God not only allows us to suffer for Christ, but tells us to expect it.  Why?  Is He the cause?  Never - it is because the world does not know Him, the world opposes everything about God and His love for mankind.  And we are part of this great force that the world holds in such disregard and hatred.  "In this world, we will have trouble" because this world is not our home.  

                                                      

Keep our eyes on the prize!  We will go home to where all will live in perfect alignment because all will be serving the same Master!  

Let me know your thoughts!  Just to keep things simpler, please just e-mail comments to me at janicehodges1356@gmail.com.  I'll bring them over to the blog - it seems some people are having problems commenting directly to the blog.  I really want to hear from you! 

In His Amazing Love,

Janice

Heads up! Changing posting time to in the a.m.! Look for Week Three - Observation 1 tomorrow morning!

Week Two - Observation 5 and Wrap Up!

Excuse my tardiness!  We had a delayed "Happy Birthday" dinner last night for our two July birthday girls, Tamara and McKinzie.  By the time we got the patio cleaned up and did our new nightly regimen of medical care, I was just too tired to sit down and get my thoughts together in any kind of order that would make any kind of logical sense!  So, I decided to spend my time this morning with Robert still sleeping to sit right here on the patio and contemplate what we have read and thought about this week.  It's a beautiful morning that I first got to experience with an early morning walk with a new friend - that's a real blessing, isn't it?  Three blessings really: a beautiful morning with a glorious sky, the ability to move and walk freely (you don't realize what a blessing that is until you see it taken away from someone), and the company of a new friend!  I truly believe God places people in your life at specific times for specific reasons.  He makes life interesting that way, doesn't He?

We're finishing up Week Two - are you looking at living through difficult times any differently than you have before?  That's what we want to accomplish through this study.  I hope you're spending time really thinking through these Scriptures and allowing the Holy Spirit to make them come alive to you and speak to you in ways you haven't heard these same Scriptures before.  To me, that's the best part of Bible study, when you read through a passage that you may have read 100 times before, but all of a sudden you get tremendous new meaning from it, or you see something so clearly that you've never seen before.  That's when you know the Holy Spirit just blessed you with a little more Godly wisdom than you previously had, and you just lean back and smile.

Remember, our question this week is:  What is the purpose(s) of suffering in a believer's life and in what different ways can we suffer?

And our verse to memorize this week will be one that we probably already have a jump start on, but one that needs to be secure!  "But He said to me,  'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.'  Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may reside in me."  2 Corinthians 12:9

OBSERVATION

Romans 8:35-39  "Who can separate us from the love of Christ?  Can affliction or anguish or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?  As it is written, 'Because of You we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered.'  No, in all these things we are more than victorious through Him who loved us.  For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!" 

Oh, don't you love this passage?  How reassuring these words are to us - no matter where we are, what is going on in our lives or what has gone on in our lives, we can K-N-O-W that God's love is available to us!

Look at all the possibilities of suffering that Paul lists:  affliction, anguish, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword...all different ways that the Christians of his time were undergoing difficulty.  And why?  Because of Jesus - because they were holding true to His name.  But Paul reassures them that through all of this, they will come out victorious; no, actually he says, "more than victorious" or as the NASB translates, "we overwhelmingly conquer."  

Quoting from the book, "Paul didn't merely survive his sufferings; he lived victoriously in the midst of difficult circumstances."   Isn't that what we want to do?  We don't want to just make it through, there's a sense of joy in victory, isn't there?  There's no bitterness, no wallowing in self-pity  - we're coming through life with all of it's uncertainties and hard times as true champions --- and all because of God's great love for us that enables us to persevere.  That love that we can have confidence in, no matter what, is there for us as believers in Jesus Christ.  WE ARE LOVED - nothing can change that, and when the hard times come, that is what we cling to; when the enemy throws the dart of doubt at us telling us that we shouldn't have to be going through whatever it is that we are going through, we say, "I AM STILL LOVED!  Nothing can separate me from the love of my God, my Father,"  

                                                    

OBSERVATION:

We need to be convinced of God's love for us prior to hard times so we can be 100% secure in it when those hard times come, and they will, in this broken world they are inevitable.  Say it now and say it often, "God loves me and nothing, nothing, NOTHING, can change that!"

WEEK TWO WRAP UP:

So the question this week was  what is the purpose(s) of suffering in a believer's life and in what different ways can we suffer?   Did we find purpose of suffering in the life of a believer?  In looking back over the days studies, I think we found several purposes:

I see that the threat of suffering can serve as a filter in the body of believers, the church, allowing the faithful to remain and for the body to be stronger than before.

I see that suffering can define our purpose in the Kingdom and make our role clearer than before.

I see that difficulties that are truly more than we can bear, force us to trust our God in a greater and more desperate way - "desperate dependence" - creating a deeper relationship of greater intimacy.

I see that difficulties and suffering expose our weakness in contrast to God's immense power.  We cannot, but He can and He does and He will make a way when there seems to be no way.  We rely on Him.

And through it all I see that God's love is not just something that I can be assured of when times are beautiful and rosy and all is well in my world; I can be just as assured of it when things are dark, dismal and oppressive.  God's love is not conditional on my circumstances; He has not withdrawn His love when things get tough.  His love abides - ALWAYS!  

Suffering can seem like punishment, but God uses difficulties and suffering to grow those who believe in Him - to mature us - to make us more like Christ.  When we trust in Him, we will not only get through our hard times, we will finish the race victoriously, as champions, with great big smiles on our faces!

In His Amazing Love,

Janice

Week Two - Observation 4

Monday - again!  They seem to roll around on a regular basis, don't they?  But it's been a good Monday for us at the Hodges' house.  Robert has felt better than average today and spent quite a bit of time at his desk - a place he really enjoys being.  Robert has always been very detailed and methodical.  He likes making sure everything is entered correctly and up-to-date.  So he was in his element today and feeling more like himself than he has the last several days --- that makes it a good day for both of us!  Thank You, Lord, for good days of ordinary pleasures that sometimes seem very extraordinary.

Does anyone else feel that very soon we may be viewing lots of things like that?  Things that we have for so long taken for granted may become things that we will view as extraordinarily special? I think we are in for changes - I just pray that they don't come too quickly or too drastically.  What changes do you see coming in our future?  Or do you think I'm being a little overly dramatic in my assessment - because I can be that person!  :)

We left off on Friday talking about our weakness compared against our great and wonderful Father's immense power, and how we need to not only acknowledge that difference, but rejoice in it and praise God for His ability to compensate for our inabilities.  We will boast and brag about how very weak we are, because our weakness allows us to show off our God's love for us and that love put into action on our behalf, rescuing us from scenarios that have looked, from human standpoints, unrescuable.

Remember, our question this week is going to be:  What is the purpose(s) of suffering in a believer's life and in what different ways can we suffer?

And our verse to memorize this week will be one that we probably already have a jump start on, but one that needs to be secure!  "But He said to me,  'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.'  Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may reside in me."  2 Corinthians 12:9

OBSERVATION

2 Corinthians 7:5-7  "In fact, when we came into Macedonia, we had no rest.  Instead, we were afflicted in every way: struggles on the outside, fears inside.  But God, who comforts the humble, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort he received from you.  He announced to us your deep longing, your sorrow, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more."

Philippians 1:12-14  "Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has actually resulted in the advancement of the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard, and to everyone else, that my imprisonment is for Christ.  Most of the brothers in the Lord have gained confidence from my imprisonment and dare even more to speak the message fearlessly."

Paul really wants the Corinthians to know of his sufferings, doesn't he?  Now he's telling them about what happened in Macedonia - we've already seen where he's told them about his troubles in Philippi, Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra - he wants them to know he has suhhhhhh-ferrred! 

Paul's purpose in continually telling them about his suffering was to also continually tell them about God's provision.  Here he says there were exhausted - worn out.  They had struggles on the outside, fears on the inside - something inside me wants to sing, "stuck in the middle with you" - and I think that might be appropriate.  Have you ever felt like Paul is describing?  All kinds of conflicts and problems swirling around you, and all kinds of doubts and fears rolling inside of you.  And what we have is God - right smack dab stuck in the middle of all of it!  God right there, ready to comfort the humble - in some translations the "depressed".  When we're suffering without and within and we bare our hearts before God, He is our source of comfort, and He knows what we need.  In Paul's case, God knew he needed his friend Titus.  And not only the presence of Titus, but the words that Titus brought to him of the care and concern that the people of Corinth had for Paul in all of his troubles.  And Paul was spiritually discerning enough to recognize that Titus' arrival was no coincidence, it was a sent by God in Paul's time of need.  Paul could feel the love of His Father in the gifting of His comfort.

In Philippians, Paul wants his Christian family there to be aware of the positive side of his imprisonment.  (Now that's looking for the silver lining!  I'm not quite sure if I was sitting in prison that I would be dwelling on the upside!)  Paul realizes that his being held in prison has allowed the Gospel to advance in a way that it would never have been able to otherwise.  Now, the whole imperial guard has heard the story of Jesus Christ and His redemptive work on behalf of sinners.  And added to that, Paul realizes that when other Christians ready to speak out for Christ have heard of his courage in his imprisonment, it has emboldened them to follow his example and speak out fearlessly in the advancement of the Gospel.  Isn't it true that when we know others have endured something that we would normally fear, it gives us that added boost of confidence that we, too, might be able to do the same? 


So, my observations on this Monday evening?  I think first, I realize that suffering can reveal to us God's great love for us, His knowledge of our needs, and His incredible provision of just the right comfort.  And then there's the fact that suffering can bring avenues of ministry that we would not have had otherwise.  Whatever suffering we are going through, we are generally exposed to a different group of people than our norm - those very people may be who we are to share the treasure of the Gospel with during our time of suffering.  And lastly, our suffering may encourage others who may have to go through the same thing - knowing that we made it, that we endured, that we even showed courage in the midst of suffering - may be just want they need to keep going and to have confidence that they can also stand strong.

Oh the joys of suffering!  I'm not saying that lightly - it's just as James exhorts us in James 1:2-4:

"Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing."

I know that's our goal - to be mature and complete in our faith.  Let's not despise the tool that can get us there.  We will face trials no matter what; let's let God use them for our spiritual good.

Praying for each of you tonight as I pray for me to have the humility and submission to allow God to guide me in His best ways through all the days of my life - both those of joy and those of difficulty.

In His Amazing Love,


Janice